Young Adult

Now that it's award season, I've been getting a lot of invitations to film premieres. Since I'm an Academy member, the great and powerful actors and directors are sucking up to me for my valuable Academy vote.

Last week I was invited by Diablo Cody to come witness her newest film, "Young Adult", directed by Jason Reitman (of "Juno" fame). I loved it. It reminded me of "Sideways" - intelligent people making very bad decisions. In fact, the decisions are so bad, the film turns into a black comedy.

It took me a few scenes to recognize the gorgeous Charlize Theron as the star; a "young adult" writer who returns to her old high school stomping grounds to try to win back her ex-boyfriend (played by Patrick Wilson) who is happily married with a newborn. One very interesting side character is one of my favorite comics, Patton Oswalt, who plays a high school nobody that was beaten by a gang of bullies because they thought he was gay. It's a very touching and emotion role that counterpoints wonderfully with Charlize's high school queen-like character.

I give the film an A-!